5 More Bad Foods and Fast
Foods to Avoid

From
eDiets - The online diet, fitness, and healthy living resource

John McGan has written a series of nutrition
articles and reviews of new foods and lists bad foods, bad fast food, why fast
food is bad for you and comparisons of good food bad food. This particular
article is on grocery store convenience food that falls into the category of
bad food!

With the busy lives people lead nowadays,
convenience foods are flying off grocery store shelves. But are consumers
paying too high a price in terms of money and health for quick and easy
food?

The new Banquet Homestyle Bakes Cheesy Ham
& Hashbrowns dinner is supposed to have easy preparation for walk-away
convenience. My family would rather walk away from any dinner table where this
slop is served.

The box contains a package of shredded and
dehydrated potatoes, a can of cheddar cheese sauce with ham in it and a packet
of crumb topping. The cook puts the potatoes in a baking pan, spreads on the
sauce, mixes in 2 cups of hot water and tops it with the crumbs. It bakes for
35 minutes.

I made this for the guys one evening before
I left for a dinner meeting. When I came home, exactly one scoop had been taken
out of the pan. I found evidence of canned soup and grilled cheese
sandwiches.

It was pretty bad, my husband
said. See for yourself. I took a bite and had to agree. It was
salty, starchy goo. The nutrition isnt any better. One box makes about
five servings, each with 1/2 cup filling, 1/3 cup potatoes and 1 1/2 teaspoons
of crumbs. A serving has 240 calories, 11 grams of fat (3 saturated), 20
milligrams cholesterol, 990 milligrams sodium (41 percent of the daily
allowance), 31 grams carbohydrate (3 fiber, 2 sugars) and 6 grams protein.

The only thing this meal has going for it
is that its cheap. The suggested retail price at Wal-Mart was $3.38, but
I bought it on sale for $1.50. At least I didnt waste a lot of money.

Nasty Little Elves

Oh sure, those Keebler Elves may look cute
and helpful, but thats the front for their covert operation of seducing
consumers into eating high-fat treats such as their new Vienna Fingers Mint
Fudge Thins.

The "Thins" remind me of Pepperidge Farm
Milanos, except the Keebler varietys cookie crust isnt as delicate
and melt-in-the-mouth, and instead of a sandwich its cookie on one side
and chocolate on the other. That means they could be a chocolate mess if eaten
out in the summer heat, or if placed in the hands of small children.

I noticed a package of brown spaghetti on
the pasta shelves and checked it out. Its made by Creamette, and the
package boasts that its made exclusively from 100 percent Semolina
from Hard Amber Durum Wheat, the best wheat available. It also says it is
a low fat, sodium free, cholesterol free food.

Great, but would my kids like it?

I decided to do a taste test. That night
for dinner I served the brown spaghetti beside ordinary store brand white
spaghetti. Both boys preferred the white spaghetti. I also liked the white
spaghetti better than the brown. The brown was chewier and had an unpleasant
earthy taste. My husband was so tired and hungry he didnt even notice
there were two different piles of pasta on his plate.

Durum, according to Wellness Foods A to
Z by Sheldon Margen, M.D. and the editors of the UC Berkeley Wellness
Letter, is "...a hard spring wheat with a high protein content and golden
color." So, although the more expensive pasta is brown, it has almost the same
nutritional value as the generic variety. The store brand is also about four
times less expensive, and my family liked it better.

Hefty Hero

The Swansons line of Hungry-Man
entrees makes my job so easy. Its hard to believe people would eat these
regularly. Several new Hungry-Man dishes even boast about having 1 lb. Of
Food. It is nothing to brag about. (To read what John McGran recently
said about Swanson's even bigger XXL servings click
here.)

I bought a box containing two Hearty Hero
Cheeseburger Sandwiches for $4.69. Each sandwich is one serving, and consists
of two Charbroiled Beef Patties with American Cheese on Oven Baked
Bread. The sandwich is easy to prepare in the microwave, but tastes like
soy burger. I looked at the ingredient list and, sure enough, the patties
contain soy protein concentrate.

No wonder the guy on the box doesnt
have his shirt tucked in. He must be hiding his belly.

Reader Request

A reader asked me to check out Kraft
Macaroni & Cheese Dinners, both the original flavor and the new Premium
Thick n Creamy version with 40 percent more cheese than Kraft Original. The
Thick 'n Creamy style does taste creamier than the original kind, and has about
the same nutrition information. But they're both unhealthy.

Both are right around 30 percent of the
daily allowances for fat and sodium. And that's if you eat only one cup.

Breakfast Bits

Another reader, a 16 year-old female, asked
for healthy breakfast suggestions. I told her what I learned last year from
nutritionists and dietitians when I wrote an article about breakfast. It
doesnt matter if the breakfast is cold or hot, they said. And while low
fat foods are better choices than those high in fat or with lots of sugars,
its even more important that people just eat something in the mornings,
to give them energy, brain power and to get their metabolisms off to
calorie-burning jump-starts.

With that in mind, Ill tell you about
two new breakfast products my family tried.

Is this the best choice for breakfast? No.
Is it better than nothing? Yes. Do I let the boys have this every day? No, of
course not.

A better choice is Dannons new Light
n Fit Creamy nonfat yogurt. This stuff tastes wonderful. Hubby and I
polished off a package of four servings (2 each of peach and strawberry), that
cost $1.78, in two days. Each 4-ounce serving has 60 calories, zero fat, 5
milligrams cholesterol, 80 to 85 milligrams sodium, 11 grams carbohydrate (6
sugars) and 6 grams protein. It also has from 6 to 15 percent of the daily
allowances of potassium, calcium, riboflavin, Vitamin B12 and phosphorus.

Becky Billingsley, a.k.a. The Check-Out
Chick, is the mother of two, a wife for 20 years and a food writer. Like most
busy moms, she often relies on convenience foods to get meals on the table in a
hurry. She worries about whether these items provide proper nutrition and if
she sacrifices too much of her grocery budget in exchange for ease of
preparation.

LEAVE 'EM LAUGHING

The following joke was sent in by Allie. It
barely passes the good taste test, but what the heck... I hope you like it
too.

What is the difference between roast beef
and pea soup? Anyone can roast beef...

OK, quickly moving along... reader Elora
submitted this knee-slapper:

A man is concerned that his wife is losing
her hearing so he asks his doctor for advice. He jots down the advice and heads
for home where he finds his wife cooking in the kitchen. After re-reading the
doc's advice, he stands 10 feet behind his hard-at-work wife and asks, "Honey,
what's for dinner?" There's no reply. He moves to 8 feet behind her and asks
again, "Honey, what's for dinner?" Still no reply. He moves 5 feet behind her
and again asks, "Honey, what's for dinner?" And STILL no reply. So he steps
right behind her and asks, "Honey, what's for dinner?" In a flash his wife
turns around, smacks him on the head with a big wooden spoon and shouts, "FOR
THE FOURTH TIME... WE'RE HAVING CHICKEN!!!"